TWO HILLSBOROUGH brothers are preparing to
climb one of Africa's highest mountains, Mount Kenya, to raise
money to help build a new children's home.

Matthew Kennedy (22) from the Ballynahinch
Road and his brother James (20), who work in the family run
property development business M G Kennedy Developments, hope to
raise £6,000 for Vision Africa.

It is a UK registered charity that works with
orphaned and destitute children in the slums and provides
education, protection and shelter.

The charity was founded by the brothers'
distant relatives, the Rev John and Vera Packard from
Manchester.

As part of their training the Matthew and
James regularly ' climb Mount Donard and despite the gruelling
challenge awaiting them, they are looking forward to it.

"We really want to do this as it will make a
big difference to many children's lives," said Matthew.

"All the money we raise will go directly to
Vision Africa as James and I have paid the costs of flights,
accommodation, food etc of the challenge ourselves."

The brothers will join nine others in the
Mount Kenya Challenge which runs from September 5 to 16.

They will climb Point Lenana which is 4,985m
over four days. When they first arrive they will fly to Nairobi
to visit some of Vision Africa projects in Kibera Slum, Riandu
and Kandara children's homes, Kirunguru special needs unit and
Kariti Seed of Hope centre.

There are 2.2m people in Kenya who suffer
from HIV with 700 dying from the condition every day which has
created as many as 930,000 orphans who are under the age of 17.

Kibera, where a lot of Vision Africa's work
is concentrated, is the largest slum in East Africa with a
population of over lm living in just one square mile